Shares in Texan supply chain management software company, i2 Technologies Inc, raced ahead by 22% to close at $26 on Monday, apparently due to a favorable write up in the latest issue of Barron’s magazine. i2’s stock was picked as a buy by two out of the three fund management experts quoted in Barron’s cover story, its fifth annual roundtable of technology stock pickers. At the end of October, i2 announced unexpectedly strong growth in its third quarter software license sales. Net profits rose 121% to $7.2m while revenues were up 62% at $94.1m. Sanjiv Sidhu, i2’s chief executive, told analysts on the conference call not to worry about rhetoric from Germany’s giant SAP AG which is threatening to extend its enterprise applications suite into i2’s supply chain management niche. Worries about just such a move had pushed i2’s stock price way down from its high of $40 to as low as $10.
